CiSRA Puzzle Competition 2013 - Solutions

4C. Novel Plots

Constructing the puzzle from the pieces scattered across the Group 4 puzzles gives a list of plot descriptions of slightly odd novels:

A Lord and Lady are stranded and die soon after the birth of their son, who is adopted and raised by a group of highly skilled fighter pilots.
A young sailor narrates a tale of a ship's captain obsessed with seeking revenge against the malevolent white wharf that removed his leg.
The adventures of the scion of the ruling family of a planet which is the only source of a spice which allows people to read the religious message contained in a single ancient carved letter.
A group of former crime fighters who wore costumes made of old clothes that were frequently mended must work together to solve the mystery of who is trying to kill them off.
A sassy rodent with striped headgear makes mayhem in a house with two young children, before cleaning up the mess just before their mother arrives home.
A marriageable young woman takes an instant dislike to an eligible bachelor because of his extreme distaste for anything even hinting at moral turpitude or lewd behaviour.
After a tragic accident leaves a girl injured and her Viking friend unruly and dangerous, the girl's mother recruits the aid of a man able to speak to the Viking and calm him down.
A group of religious pilgrims pass the time on the road swapping stories about making bundles of hay.
The tragic Depression-era story of two migrant workers - a clever man and his strong but mentally disabled friend - who only ever get paid in Japanese currency.
A humble Southern lawyer is appointed to defend a man in court, and sends his account for services rendered to a song-mimicking avian.
An epic quest to destroy a magical piece of jewellery which allows an evil pile of rendered pig fat to dominate anyone who wears it.
An Oklahoma farming family destroyed by drought set out for California, where the second son attends school but receives poor assessments because of his anger.
World War III destroys the northern hemisphere, leaving people in Australia to live out their last days as radiation heads southward eating nothing but the fruit of Prunus trees.
A boy tutored by a wizard who ages backwards becomes the ruler of Britain and eventually grows into a giant gorilla.
A group of schoolboys stranded on an island compete to see who will get control of the only source of hot potato chips.
A reporter narrates a tale of survival as weird alien beings invade and subjugate southern England with fantastic weapons, having arrived in an interplanetary automobile.
An orphan boy and the upper-class boy from the house across the moors compete for the love of the daughter of the man who took the orphan in to his house on a hill, which shrivels and dries up as the years pass.
A professor of religious symbology becomes embroiled in a Europe-spanning clue hunt to uncover the secret hidden in The Last Supper: that Jesus holds in his hand a serve of ice cream.
A man raised by Martians travels to Earth and has to become accustomed to all the weird things that occur to him in a small, narrow road.
Young Charles wins a golden opportunity to tour the workplace of an eccentric mathematician with synaesthesia who insists that numbers have various flavours, and is working on the problem of finding prime divisors of large numbers.

Each of these is based on a real world novel (or at least fictional work), but the title has been changed by one letter. The new novel titles, and the letters changed are (listed in the same order as the clues):

Title Letter changed To

Tarzan of the Aces P C

Moby-Dock I O

Rune D R

Patchmen W P

The Rat in the Hat C R

Prude and Prejudice I U

The Norse Whisperer H N

The Canterbury Bales T B

Of Mice and Yen M Y

To Bill a Mockingbird K B

The Lard of the Rings O A

The Grades of Wrath P D

On the Peach B P

The Once and Future Kong I O

Lord of the Fries L R

The Car of the Worlds W C

Withering Heights U I

The Da Vinci Cone D N

Stranger in a Strange Lane D E

Charlie and the Chocolate Factors Y S

Reading the list of letters that have been changed to gives the message: CORP RUN BY BAD PORCINES. This is a description of another modified novel title, which is the answer to the puzzle: ANIMAL FIRM.